The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-01-29
A STRANGE CLINIC.


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From q long and perilous journey to
the center of Africa DR.. Symmachus had
brought back with him n native negro,
born upon the Seba, and monkey of
enormous size-a chmpanzee, / think
an animal of great intelligence and her
cuean strength. The negro was called
Karcl and the beast. whose black face
was framed in stiif yellow har, an
swered to the name of Manko
The doctor was a singular person,
small, thin and nervous, with eyes like
burning Goals deeply set in sockets worn
and faded TO q purplish red. He in
spred you with an indelinable feeling
of antipathy--almost OF disgust His
age no one knew; he might have been
thirty he might have been fifty. His
smooth and brass-colored face, dry and
unwrinkled, resembled that of an Egyp-
tian mummy, which retains you know
not what expression of wickenness and
irony, with its mouth forever silent and
its eyes forever closed.
Or. Symmachus
OCCUPIED AN OLD RUIN
IN faubourg of Paris. Il miserable
building, its walls broken in, its red
roof covered with moss and its joints
worm-eaten and crumbling. He lived
entirely alone, having neither family
nor friends. and he did not seem to be
conscious that men were living around
him. The negro served hun with the
mechanical devotion of Il slave without
n soul, and the monkey took part in
this solitary existence with the scornful
gravity of mute and conquered Great
'res.
Never had anything in the shape Of
a human being crossed the sill of this
dilapidated dwelling, and strange stor-
les were alloat in the nnighoorhood
about the doctor, although the people
scarcely knew his name. lie refused
all patients, but there were gossips bold
enough to knock even at his door
The shutters, which were very thick
and lined with mattresses of tow cover
ed with leather, were always closed; yet
nearly every night, way into the late
hours, sharp and piercing cries came
from that dismal house; then spirals of
brown greasy smoke escaped from the
chimneys, difi'using a sickening odor of
burnt flesh, bones and hair. Strange
to say, the police paid no attention 10
these things; more than once they
heard the cries. saw the smoke and
smelt the putrid emanations, but they
passed TRANQUILITY on, as if they cared
nothing for the dcvilish work going on
behind those crumbling walls and bar
red shutters-for every one in the
neighborhood firmly believed that Doc
tor Symmachus had given himself up
to the practice of the Black Arts, and
sacrificed victims to some monstrous
idol OF a savage people.
The mothers forbade their children
playing near the old house, which they
CALLED THE "HousE OF THE DEVIL"
And trembed with fear whenever they
approached it,
The neighbors often tried TO question
Karcl, the negro, but he replied only by
minlelligiblc mutterngs and grins and
grimaces; so they thought that he WIS
not only dumb but wicked When he
went to the grocery for goods he would
show the names OF articles written on
a slate. and he always paid for them
with piece Of silver never taking nny
change in return. They frequently Of
fered him glass of wine in the hope of
making him tell something about his
master, but he refused to drink il, and
walked through the street with a proud
air, charmed to be escorted by a crowd
of boys who admired his turban of
white silk and his bournous of blue
flannel floating in ample folds about
his meager body.
Little by little certain discoveries.
were made by DIR. Symmachus. He
went out almost every morning before
twelve o'clock, and returned at twi-
light, bringing two dogs lashed togeth-
er, which disappeared and were never
seen again. Sometimes they were mag
nifcent greyhounds, sometimes little
terriers. then white spaniels or big New
foundlands. Two or three times